


Heart of Ice

by Dreamin



Series: Heart of Stone [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/M, Greek Mythology AU, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 11:25:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15662286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin/pseuds/Dreamin
Summary: Mycroft has questions for Molly.





	Heart of Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afteriwake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/gifts).



> This is the companion fic to Heart of Stone, which I suggest you read first. The first part takes place just before Heart of Stone, the second part takes place just after.

Mycroft Holmes stared at the mobile in his hand. _This cannot be Molly Hooper. I’ve read her entire file, there’s documentation from her entire life._

_Simply put, it is not possible for Molly Hooper to be a gorgon._

And yet the evidence was right in front of him. He played the video one more time. She was dragged into an alley the night before by a serial rapist, neither of them noticing the security camera. Molly refused to go down easily. She tried to punch him but he blocked it.

That’s when it happened.

The angle of the camera showed the back of her head but it clearly showed the man turning to stone in an instant. Molly belatedly looked around, still not seeing the camera, then she picked up the statue like it weighed no more than a feather and carried it away.

Putting the mobile back in his pocket, Mycroft leaned back in his desk chair and recalled everything he knew about gorgons. _Mythological creatures from Ancient Greece. There were three known to mortals – Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, the last being the most famous._

_She had been a priestess of Athena, a beautiful and chaste woman who unfortunately caught the eye of Poseidon. She spurned his advances and he raped her on the floor of Athena’s temple. Throughout history, it was said that Athena turned her into a monster with a gaze that could turn men to stone as a punishment, but feminists now say that Athena did it to protect Medusa from future attacks._

_Medusa’s image was used as a sort of guardian of households, not unlike gargoyles on cathedrals. She was considered a protector._

He winced at his own obliviousness. _She’s not just a gorgon. As impossible as it sounds, Molly Hooper must be Medusa._ His protective instincts surged, but he knew this was different than his need to protect his parents or younger brother. How, he couldn’t say.

* * *

Neither of them spoke during the car ride to her house. Mycroft knew the driver, while trustful, couldn’t be privy to the conversation they needed to have. He looked over at Molly, who looked back at him curiously. Acting on impulse, he reached over and took her hand, squeezing it gently. She gave his hand a squeeze in return then, after a moment, laid her head on his shoulder.

Needing to ask a question, he pulled out his mobile and wrote a text then showed it to her.

**If I touch your hair, will the snakes bite me?**

She lifted her head to smile at him shyly then held out her hand and he gave her the phone. After deleting his text, she wrote her reply.

 **They’re asleep when I have the illusion up.** She showed it to him then deleted it and wrote another. **If you touch me like this, what you’ll feel is the illusion. It’s not just visual.** She gave him back the phone.

Mycroft deleted her text then wrote one more. **Would it feel the same to you?** He offered her the phone but she shook her head then shrugged.

 _She doesn’t know?_ He decided the rest of his questions could wait.

As soon as he walked into Molly’s home, the first thing he noticed was the heat. He removed his suit jacket and hung it up on the coat tree beside the door then rolled up his shirt sleeves.

Molly smiled at him apologetically. “Sorry, I know it’s probably stifling in here to you but I need to warm up after the chill of the morgue.”

“Of course,” he said, realization hitting him. “You must be ectothermic.”

“Not entirely, or I’d never be able to survive winter without hibernating. Just enough to make my heating bill sky-high six months out of the year.” She led the way to the kitchen. Her flat looked completely normal except that there was something missing, something he couldn’t identify. “Can I offer you anything?”

“Just answers,” he said, taking a seat at the far side of the peninsula.

She nodded. “I think I’m going to need something stronger than tea.” She took a bottle of red wine out of the refrigerator then poured herself a full glass and sat down across from him. “Where should we start?”

He went with the most pressing. “Are you really Margaret Anne Hooper or did you steal her identity?”

“Starting with the mundane stuff, nice.” She sipped her wine. “My mortal identity before my university years is completely fictitious.” At his raised eyebrow, she smiled and added, “The best forgers in the country crafted it for me, so don’t feel bad that you didn’t catch it.”

 _I should look over her file again when I get back to the office._ “What made you want to attend university?”

“I wanted a challenge and I thought that I could help more people if I went into pathology.” She took another sip of her wine then laughed softly. “I saw this mythology documentary series a few years ago. There was an episode about me and some ‘expert’ was speculating that my image evolved from the sight of a corpse. Funniest thing I’d heard in centuries.”

He chuckled. “Why does everyone think Perseus killed you?”

“He was the only ‘hero’ I let live. Don’t ask me why, I’ve never been able to figure it out myself. Since I didn’t kill him, the storytellers who wrote about heroes’ exploits decided to glorify Perseus and make him the one man to defeat me. All of those storytellers were men, by the way. They couldn’t stand the thought of a man not winning yet also not dying ‘honorably.’”

Mycroft nodded. “They were fools.”

She smiled a bit. “Aren’t all men?”

He smirked. “Don’t tell me you’re a misandrist.”

Her expression darkened. “No, but if I were, could you blame me?” She drained the rest of her glass in one swallow then got up and went to the sink.

Silently cursing himself, Mycroft got up and rounded the peninsula then cautiously approached her.

“You don’t need to worry, Mycroft,” she said quietly, her back to him. “I’m not going to turn you to stone in a fit of pique. It’s irreversible, so I quickly learned how to control my temper. You don’t need to walk on eggshells around me.”

“If I’m walking on eggshells,” he said gently, “it’s simply because I’ve realized that I have upset a woman I have come to care about.” When she turned to him, he brought her over to the sofa and they sat down. “When we’re alone, would you prefer it if I called you Molly or Medusa?”

“Molly,” she said without hesitation. “There are too many painful memories attached to my real name.”

“Alright.” He paused, debating on how to properly word his next question. “Were you truly enamored with my brother?”

If the question surprised her, she didn’t show it. “I played the role I knew was expected of me. Unbelievably, he fell for my act hook, line, and sinker.”

Mycroft smiled a bit. “Well, you’ve had thousands of years to perfect your acting skills.”

She smiled weakly. “Thank you. My friendship with him now is genuine, and a lot easier to maintain.”

“What of your relationship with Jim Moriarty?”

Her expression darkened again. “Please, don’t mention him to me again. I truly thought he liked me. Well, the ‘me’ I show the world. I never told him the truth. Maybe I would have, someday. Honestly, I would have turned him to stone if he hadn’t killed himself.”

“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I won’t bring him up again.” There was a question he was dying to ask but he knew it was highly inappropriate.

She must have seen the question in his eyes. “I didn’t sleep with him. To be honest, I haven’t slept with anyone since Athena changed me.”

“You haven’t wanted to? After what you went through, that would be understandable.”

“Oh, I’ve wanted to, believe me. It’s just that I never found a man worthy enough to show him the real me.”

“Except myself,” he said, smiling a bit.

She shrugged. “You knew, you asked, I saw no reason not to.”

 _She makes it sound so easy but it couldn’t have been._ “You trust me?” he asked, unable to keep the amazement out of his voice.

“Your job means you are good at keeping secrets and you’ve proven time and again with Sherlock that you will do anything to protect those important to you. I’ll probably never know you as well as I know your brother, but I feel that I can trust you with my secret, and my life.”

“You can,” he assured her gently. He took her hand again. “Molly … I normally avoid romantic entanglements entirely but I feel … drawn to you.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he went on. “I believe my attraction has been building since we met. I realize I am hardly ‘boyfriend material,’ but would you consider the possibility?”

She stared at him. “That kiss wasn’t just an impulse?”

“Not entirely.”

“Is this just because of-”

 _She thinks I have a mythology kink._ “It’s because I’m getting to know the real you, not the perpetually cheerful woman who fancies my brother.”

She smiled a bit at that. “Alright, Mycroft – we can try a relationship, but we need to keep it to ourselves. Both of us have reputations to protect.”

“Fair enough.” He bent to kiss her forehead. “I must go, may I call you tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Her eyes were on his lips then she muttered, “Oh, fuck it,” and kissed him deeply.

Mycroft pulled her into his arms and kissed her back. One thought filtered through the pleasure he was feeling. _This is certainly an auspicious start._


End file.
